1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and a method for planning and allocating resources in the semiconductor testing industry, and particularly to a system and a method for resource allocation in the semiconductor testing industry in a multiple resource environment.
2. Description of Related Art
Due to increasing competition between firms, based on market prediction, semiconductor testing firms must effectively perform resource planning, capacity allocation, profit allocation, and resource purchasing to allocate capacity to orders/semiconductor chips of customers, so that the profits and the resources can be employed most effectively. Conventional resource planning and capacity allocation of a semiconductor testing firm is mostly performed using spreadsheet software in cooperation with practical experiences. However, the orders to be tested and the required resource are complex combined resources (e.g., an order may simultaneously require a testing system, a handler and other machinery), which often lead to confliction, delay and waste among the resources. In addition, there are many possible channels for purchasing the resources.
On the other hand, conventional resource planning and the capacity allocation are executed separately by two departments with different functions, i.e. a resource planning department and a production control department in the firm. Hence, if optimal resource planning and capacity allocation cannot be simultaneously achieved, thereby possibly leading to losses in millions of dollars. A conventional method for resource planning and capacity allocation is time consuming, and many what-if analyses cannot be easily performed in a short time. There is also a lack of methods to precisely describe operational characteristics in the semiconductor testing industry (e.g. factors such as fabrication feasibility between resources, production feasibility between orders and resources and constraints on production capacity of resources).